


Rikkai 2.0

by GeniusCactus



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Crack, Future Fic, Gen, I think this still counts as Gen, Import of old work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:33:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24308275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeniusCactus/pseuds/GeniusCactus
Summary: When Yukimura discovers his university doesn't have an official tennis team, he is determined to create one. The best in Japan. Maybe the best in the world.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 10





	1. Yukimura's New Team

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is very cracky and kind of all over the place, but it's still one of my favorite things I've written! I originally posted this on ff.net in 2015. Besides correcting some grammar/spelling mistakes I found, I'm just going to be posting that exact same fic here. Then *maybe* I will finally finish it.

Deciding where to attend university wasn’t an easy decision for Fuji. He had many diverse hobbies and interests, and he practically aced all of his college entrance exams, giving him a wide range of options. After several long grueling hours of contemplation, Fuji finally decided to major in ‘Landscape Photography’ at a small fine arts college, appropriately named “Tokyo University of Fine Arts.” The downside was that the university was located near Hyotei, so housing was a little bit on the expensive side. But the upside was it wasn’t too far away from home, so Fuji S. could visit Fuji Y. whenever he wanted. 

Classes started the week of April 6th, but Fuji didn’t have any classes until that Wednesday. So, Fuji decided to use his spare time to wander around the serene little campus taking pictures of whatever caught his eye. As Fuji meandered around campus, lost in blissful Fujiland, he didn’t notice the shadow of a tall blue-haired boy creeping up behind him.

“Fuji Syusuke?! Is that you?” 

Fuji’s heart jumped at the sound of someone’s voice so close behind him. Careful that his facial expressions didn’t betray his surprise, Fuji turned around to come face to face with the former captain of Rikkai-dai, Yukimura Seiichi. Fuji, along with the rest of the tennis world, was under the impression that someone like Yukimura would move to enter the pros straight after high school. It was a well-known fact that Yukimura’s big dream was in tennis. According to Inui at least 80% of Yukimura’s waking thoughts were tennis related. 

Nevertheless, Fuji didn’t press for answers as to why The Child of God didn’t pursue a career in the pros. In the back of his mind Fuji wondered if it might have something to do with that illness Yukimura battled years ago. Perhaps, it wasn’t that Yukimura didn’t want to go pro. He simply couldn’t. 

“Great! It really is you! Fuji, how are you? It’s been a while!” Yukimura asked, adjusting the baby blue cardigan draped over his shoulders so it didn’t blow off in the wind. 

“I’ve been doing well, and you?” Fuji answered, putting the lens cap back on his camera and placing it carefully back in its case. Yukimura seemed a little overenthusiastic about running into Fuji. Maybe he was worried about making new friends in college. 

Yukimura brushed off the formalities with a simple ‘fine thanks’ and, looking ten times more serious, cut to the real reason he approached Fuji, “Look, I have this big problem I need you to help me with.” 

_Of course THE Yukimura Seiichi isn’t worried about making new friends in college. After all, he’s Yukimura. The Child of God._ Fuji reflected, waiting for Yukimura to continue with his ‘big problem.’

“You see, when I agreed to attend the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, I didn’t realize they didn’t have a tennis team! Can you believe that? What kind of joke university is this? I talked to the school administrators, and they said I need at least 7 members to form an official tennis club. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but a surprising amount of people don’t want to join.“ 

Yukimura continued to ramble on and on like he and Fuji were old friends. Which they weren’t. Sure they roomed together that one time at the U-17 camp, but that was years ago. Yukimura had led Rikkai High to the nationals three consecutive times and it sounded like he was planning to do it again. To turn Tokyo University of Fine Arts into Rikkai 2.0. Well, if he could manage to form a tennis team in time for prefecturals that was. When Tezuka and Echizen left to pursue their careers in the pros after Junior High, Seigaku’s tennis team fell downhill. They didn’t even make it to regionals the three years Fuji was in high school. 

When Fuji decided to attend Tokyo School of Fine Arts he knew full well there weren’t any sports teams. It was a school for the fine arts after all. He couldn’t imagine why The Child of God didn’t realize this. There was only one logical explanation. In Yukimura’s world, _everything_ revolved around tennis. Even if a school ‘didn’t have any sports teams,’ they must at least have a tennis club! It would be _crazy_ not to. 

Knowing now that Yukimura’s was in fact able-bodied enough to play tennis, Fuji was burning with curiosity as to why Yukimura decided to attend university. Especially one without a proper tennis team. 

“Yukimura, it seems like tennis really is your passion. If I may ask, why exactly did you decide to attend university at all? Why not become a pro straight out of high school?” 

“Actually, going pro was my original plan. But, when I informed Sanada of this he said, ‘No college degree?!…That’s tarundoru!’“ Yukimura mimicked Sanada’s gruff voice and very cutely crossed his arms as he imitated the former vice captain. 

“Hmm? So your decision to attend university…is because of Sanada then?” Fuji smirked, imagining Inui saying ‘ii data’ in the background.

Noticing Fuji’s expression, Yukimura quickly corrected him, “Oh no, it’s not like _that_. Sanada just made me realize how valuable having a college education is. So, I agreed we should attend college first before going pro. Besides, my parents had been trying to convince me for a while that I should have some kind of backup degree. Something to do after I retire. Tennis pros have to retire so young, you know?”

_And, you chose oil painting as a backup degree…very smart_

“You didn’t look into the tennis programs before you applied?” Fuji asked even though he kind of already knew the answer.

“Oh Fuji…” Yukimura chuckled. “To get scouted for the pros I don’t have to go to the school that currently has the best tennis team. I just have to make sure the school I’m in _now_ wins and makes it to the college nationals!” 

But to Fuji it sounded more like, “I’m so awesome I can go to whatever school I want and still make it to the nationals, even one without a tennis team. Because I’m ME! I’m THE CHILD OF GOD” 

Pretentious much? Yukimura probably planned this whole thing just so he could be captain of the tennis club, again.

“But you see, Fuji, not having a tennis team at all is a _slight_ obstacle. Including you, we only have 3 members. We still need 4 more.” Yukimura’s face returned to a sweet, pleasant smile.

“Wait, who’s the 3rd member?” Fuji asked, confused. There was him, Yukimura, and…?

“Didn’t I just say? Sanada and I decided to go to University _together_ ,“ Yukimura said, emphasizing the word _together._

“Ah, I see, so it’s Sanada who followed _you_ to University. How did you coerce him into coming to the Tokyo University of Fine arts? Art doesn’t really seem like his thing.” Fuji asked, genuinely curious. 

“Ha? Coerce? Please, he came willingly. In fact, Sanada is majoring in classical Japanese painting, something very important to him.” Yukimura stated matter of factly.

“I see…” Things were getting interesting. Maybe Fuji would join this little tennis club after all, just for the fun of it. 

“We’re going have our tennis club meeting Thursday at 7:00pm, after Sanada’s choir meeting. We’re meeting at the Kahlo Commons, see you then!” Yukimura informed cheerily, walking off before Fuji had a chance to respond.


	2. Pretty Little Posters

The following evening, Yukimura, Sanada, and Fuji met at the Kahlo Commons; the popular place for students to eat lunch, discuss projects, or just hang-out. Fuji, never being one to overly worry about the exact time of events, arrived at 7:05. He was, of course, the last to arrive. 

Sanada and Yukimura were already staked out at a booth discussing the intricacies of the almost-tennis club. When Fuji finally arrived to the meeting, Yukimura suddenly slammed a piece of paper on the table and began speaking rapidly about their poster advertisements for the club. 

Yukimura explained how he and Sanada had worked tirelessly, pulling two consecutive all-nighters, in order to make these posters advertising the club meeting. The posters were naturally written in Sanada’s flawless calligraphy and decorated with Yukimura’s beautiful artwork. Despite their hard effort, it seemed no one but Fuji was willing to join the club. Yukimura was now devising some new plans to rework their poster design in order to attract more members. 

Fuji had noticed the posters around campus advertising the club. They were extremely over the top, very professional. The club advertisement also came in the form of weird, dorky poems. Probably written by Sanada:

_Spring-time is coming_

_Perfect weather to play some_

_Tennis with comrades_

_Thursday at 7_

_Kahlo Commons find out the_

_Beauty of Tennis_

The posters, as bizarre as they were, weren’t the problem with the club’s lack of membership. The issue was that they were at an art school with a bunch of hipster art geeks who could care less about sports. But explaining this to Yukimura would be…

Yukimura was now insisting that Fuji use his photography skills to advertise for the club. Take pictures of them practicing and make it look really cool and stuff. 

“It will be easy, just take some pictures of us practicing. Maybe use some kind of special effects to make it look cool or something” Yukimura suggested.

“But, I’m majoring in ‘landscape photography’ I don’t take pictures of people,” Fuji answered. It was kind of true. He was majoring in landscape photography.

“It’s for the team!” Sanada growled forcefully, glaring at Fuji.

“Now, now. If Fuji isn’t willing to do it, we’ll think of a different plan.” Yukimura said, cool as a cucumber.

Several minutes passed before Yukimura spoke up again.

“Why don’t I ask my friend Renji if he knows of any tennis players attending our school?” 

Fuji nearly face-palmed at the fact that Yukimura hadn’t asked his best friend ever, the dataman, about tennis players attending their school, yet. Yukimura had instead decided to make pretty little posters advertising the club. Well, Yukimura always liked pretty things and Sanada always needed an excuse to show off that stupid calligraphy. Being a genius was so hard sometimes. 

Yukimura dialed his good friend Renji’s number. 

“Ah, hello, Seiichi. I had a strong feeling you would call today.” Yanagi Renji answered. Like a psychic, Renji already knew the conversation that was about to take place. 

“Renji, I need your help with something.”

“You want to know if there are any other tennis players at Tokyo University of Fine Arts. There is an 80% chance that by now you have already ran into Fuji Shuusuke. But only a .02% chance that you would notice Shishido Ryou also attends your school.”

“Shishido Ryou?” Yukimura questioned.

“Former member of Hyotei’s Silver Pair,” Renji filled in. 

“Ah, thank you for your help, Renji.” Yukimura said hanging up the phone. 

“Shishido is also attending Tokyo School of Fine Arts?” Fuji said in surprise. It seemed somewhat…no it seemed quite out of character for him.

“I didn’t get any other information other than he attends the school. I should have asked for his major, or something.” Yukimura answered.

“I’ll call Atobe.” Sanada said, suddenly pulling out a cellphone designed for old-men out of his pocket. 

“What makes you think that guy would know anything? He’s living in England now.” Yukimura asked incredulously. 

Sanada **very boldly** put his left hand up to silence The Child of God and punched the number 3 into his Oldman Cell with his right. The phone only remembered 5 numbers; his parent’s, Grandfather’s Yukimura’s, Atobe’s, Renji’s. They’re all he ever talked to anyway. Well, and Tezuka, but they emailed like proper adults. 

“Sanada, what brings you to call Oresama’s phone?” Atobe gave off his usual pompous air.

“Atobe, do you know if any of your former teammates are attending Tokyo School of Fine Arts?” Sanada got right to the point of what he was after.

“Tokyo University of Fine Arts? It sounds familiar.” Atobe mused. “Kabaji!” Atobe yelled across his large house to his good friend/servant. Some incomprehensible murmuring could be heard But Sanada misunderstood and thought Atobe was answering his question.

 _Kabaji? I never would have guessed Kabaji would attend Tokyo University of Fine Arts_ “Kabaji is also attending--?”

“Huh? No, Oresama was just asking Kabaji your question. Of course Kabaji isn’t at that ~~stupid~~ school. Anyways, Kabaji reminded me that Shishido goes there. Oh, and he majors in voice”

“But why is Shishido at school here?” 

“Something about Ootori… Look Oresama has to go, talk to you later!” And with that Atobe hung up. Sanada didn’t have a chance to ask whether there were any more people at the school he might know.


	3. Fuji's Brunch Date

Saturday, Fuji S. had an important brunch date with his dear brother Yuuta. Fuji was really looking forward to it, as he hadn’t seen his brother since move in day (one whole week ago). There was so much they had to catch up on! 

Midday Saturday, they met up for brunch at a small bistro near campus. With all those artsy fartsy people around, there were loads of neat little cafes and bistros to choose from. Fuji S. decided to take Yuuta to the Dali Deli. The sandwiches there were said to be surreal. 

“Yuuta! It’s been so long! How have you been? Are you sleeping well?” Fuji chattered excitedly.

“Aniki, I literally just saw you last week. Nothing’s changed. I’m doing the exact same.” Yuuta rolled his eyes. “How’s university treating you so far?”

A young waiter, early college aged or maybe still in high school, set down a plate of strawberry chocolate crepes in front of Yuuta. Yuuta noticed that his crepes looked like they were supposed to have some kind of design on them. The strawberries were nicely sliced into thin oval shapes and placed delicately on top of the crepe. Then, chocolate sauce was used to draw a little clock design. It could have been cute, but the crepe was too hot when they drew it, so the clock looked like it was melting. Well, they tried.

Eyes closed, Fuji S. rested his head on his hand looking up at his little brother. “It’s supposed to look like that. The clock. It’s a play on Salvador Dali’s painting, ‘Persistence of Memory.’ “ 

“Oh…” Yuuta looked down at his plate. He still didn’t see it. It still looked like messy melted chocolate on a strawberry crepe. 

“It’s a famous painting, Yuuta! What kinds of things are you learning at _that_ school?” Fuji shook his head in disappointment. 

“Aniki, are you turning into one of those art nerds?!” Yuuta teased, gesturing to a group of fashionably dressed girls and boys, wearing thick framed black glasses, and analyzing the rather creepy looking paintings on the walls. 

The waiter brought out the older Fuji’s order, some kind of mysterious sandwich Yuuta was sure he didn’t want to try. It was green. With Fuji S., that was never a good sign.

“So, what kind of art piece is your sandwich supposed to represent?” Yuuta inquired. 

“What? This is just a normal wasabi tomato pesto arugula sandwich, silly” Fuji S. laughed. 

Yuuta gave his older brother ‘a look’ and returned to eating his melted chocolate crepes. He was never letting his brother pick what restaurant they went to again.

“Yuuta, I joined the tennis team again, by the way!” Fuji S. announced, somewhat out of the blue.

“I thought your school didn’t have a tennis team!” Yuuta stated in surprise. 

Well actually he _had_ heard about the forming of a makeshift tennis team from a friend of his that attended the school. But, he decided to keep this a secret from his older brother. His older brother would be angry if he found out he was still in touch with that particular friend. 

“You’re right, the school doesn’t have one right now, but Yukimura is determined to make one. Remember him? The former captain of Rikkai-dai? I thought it was silly at first, but now I’m kind of itching to play tennis again. Not just play tennis, but really _play_ tennis. Yukimura even wants us to go all the way to nationals, Yuuta.” Fuji S. answered. 

“Forming a team from scratch and going all the way to nationals. That’s kind of ambitious don’t you think?” Yuuta questioned.

He took another bite of his crepe. Okay, despite the fact that it looked ugly, it tasted pretty spot on. Maybe his brother’s tastes weren’t so off after all…

“Very, but it is Yukimura. Sanada is also on the team. And, they’re going to try and convince Shishido to join. So, we just need 3 more people.” Fuji explained calmly, voice unwavering. 

A couple minutes of silence passed before Yuuta spoke up again. 

“I know someone at your school who plays tennis.”

“Really? Who is it?” Fuji S. asked curiously. 

Yuuta frowned. Debating whether or not to tell his older brother the next part.

Noticing Yuuta’s expression, Fuji S. asked, “Yuuta, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t think you’re gonna like this” Yuuta hesitated, finally blurting out, “Mizuki. Mizuki Hajime, remember him? He goes to your school, he’s majoring in opera…”

Fuji’s muscles tensed. “I see…” After a long pause Fuji started speaking again. “I thought you were going to stop seeing him after he graduated, Yuuta. Tell me, did you really come all this way just to see me? Or do you have some other business here?” The older Fuji’s tone was pointed, cold, and icy. 

“Aniki, for the umpteenth time, I told you already, Mizuki is just a friend! And I came here just to see you. I promise!” 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.” Fuji S. apologized. He didn’t want to risk another fallout with his favorite and only brother. They continued their meal in peace and avoided talking about unpleasant things, like that former manager of Yuuta’s tennis team. 

But, Fuji was now more motivated than ever to convince Shishido to join the team and quickly find 3 other members to join before it was too late. With Mizuki becoming a potential teammate, Fuji S. knew they were going to have to seriously up the ante if they wanted to avert this crisis. After saying his goodbyes to Yuuta, Fuji S. dialed the number of an old friend. 

It was his last resort. 


	4. My Choir Buddy

Saturday evening Sanada realized that Shishido was in his choir class. He never noticed him before, because Sanada always stood in the back row and Shishido on the front row. After class was over, Sanada dutifully went to confront Shishido about the Tennis club.

“Shishido!” Sanada bellowed

Shishido flinched at the familiar voice and hesitantly turned around. The voice belonged to none other than the stoic Sanada, former Rikkai-dai vice-captain.

“I was instructed to bring you to the tennis club meeting immediately after choir practice. It is held in the Kahlo commons.” Sanada was very to the point and didn’t ask any questions about why Shishido was there or how he didn’t expect to see him in choir club. Shishido was grateful for this.

“Now? I kind of have somewhere else to be.” Shishido lied. Shishido had seen the poster advertisements for the Tennis club. A tennis team using pretty calligraphy poems with little flower drawings to try and attract new members seemed pretty lame.

“Tarundoru! This is not optional! You are our doubles 1. It is important for you to be there.” With that Sanada walked off, glancing back, obviously expecting Shishido to follow him.

Since Shishido didn’t actually have any real plans he decided to follow Sanada to the tennis meeting, somewhat intrigued.

“Sanada, you said I would play doubles 1? Who is my partner?”

“To be decided.” Sanada said shortly.

*****

At the meeting, Shishido was surprised that the ‘tennis team’ only consisted of 4 people, including himself. What’s more, they were all first years. Well, extremely talented first years, but first years nonetheless.

After only just arriving. Shishido got up from their shared booth, exclaiming, “This is lame.” And attempted to walk out the door.

“Wait, Shishido.” Fuji’s cold voice made Shishido reluctantly turn around. “We still have some things to discuss with you.”

“Yes, Shishido, why exactly are you at Tokyo University for the Fine Arts? This is an auditioned school, I didn’t know you were so talented.” Yukimura cut in. 

“That is…” Shishido muttered.

“Something to do with Ootori?” Fuji smirked his evil little smirk. “Now now, following around a boy is one of the worst reasons to choose a school. It is especially true when said boy has not even graduated from high school yet.”

“It’s not like that!!” Shishido flushed. Why did everyone always think he and Choutarou were more than friends? 

“When we were in high school together Choutarou helped me realize my passion for singing. That’s all. We’re JUST FRIENDS” Shishido explained, annoyed.

What Shishido failed to say is that he only got into Tokyo University of Fine Arts after he and Choutarou practiced together for hours and hours on end. Choutarou had made him record and re-record his audition tape several times until it was good enough to send, and even then he was waitlisted. Unlike the talented Fuji, Yukimura, and Sanada who were all probably attending the school on nice scholarships, Shishido barely got in and was paying for it with mommy and daddy’s money. But he got in, and he would go to school with Choutarou next year. And that’s all that really matters in the long run.

“Anyway, back to important things. We still need a second person for doubles 1 and a doubles 2 team. Shishido, do you have any friends that play tennis here?” Yukimura was eager to complete his team in time to register as an official team for upcoming tournaments. 

“Uh no, but when Choutarou comes next year—“ Shishido started.

“So you are waiting for him here.” Fuji snickered.

“Next year?! I will not wait one year to play on the tennis team!” Yukimura snarled, glaring vehemently at Shishido. 

“Well….I do have one idea…but I’m not sure it’s entirely legal.” Fuji smiled cunningly.

*****

Unbeknownst to the 4 teammates, a young man with dark violet hair and a flashy purple jacket was watching them inconspicuously from behind a large pillar. 

_Fufufu, how’s your little tennis team going, Fuji Shyusuke? Only 4 members? You’re going to be practically begging me to join that team of yours before long. Just you wait._


	5. Cooking Up a Plan

_“Well...I do have one idea…but I’m not sure it’s entirely legal.” Fuji smiled cunningly._

After Fuji’s comment, the tennis club members had brought their voices down to a low whisper, too quiet for the purple haired stalker to hear. After standing behind his pillar trying to listen in without much success, Mr. Stalker finally decided to give up and go to the practice rooms to prepare for Monday’s ‘Italian Opera’ quiz. 

“Let me get this straight, you want to borrow members from our sister school, Tokyo University of Culinary Arts?” Shishido whispered hesitantly, looking at Fuji like he had grown a second head. 

“Yes, I know Eiji is attending that school and more than willing to join our team if it means he gets to play doubles. And when I talked to him over the phone yesterday, he told me Marui also attends there.” Fuji informed everyone with his typical serene smile plastered on his face. 

“Marui said he would become the best pastry chef in Japan.” Sanada stated bluntly, although it wasn’t really relevant to what they were talking about.

The teammates sat in silence. One more member… where would they find one more member?

“Jirou is also attending that culinary school, I think. I’m not sure.” Shishido spoke up. He didn’t really pay attention to where people decided to go after high school. 

“This is great, that makes exactly 7 members!” Yukimura clapped his hands together in delight. Finally, they would be able to become an official team!

“Wait, hold on, we can’t just take people from other schools, it’s against the law!” Sanada emphasized, appalled at his new almost-teammate’s actions. 

“That’s—“ Sanada started.

“Yes, yes… we know Tarundoru.” Yukimura said, patting Sanada sympathetically on the back. 

“Ah. Don’t worry, Sanada, no one will ever know after I make the fake school IDs for our new members” Fuji added. Still smiling like nothing was wrong. They definitely weren’t about to commit a felony or anything. 

Some would call him traditional, others maybe even a ‘goody-two shoes.’ Sanada considered himself a very noble man, something like a modern Samurai of sorts. He worked hard every day to uphold the integrity of the Sanada family. Sanada had never even ridden in a car without first buckling his seatbelt! The horror! And this plan… it was illegal, mischievous, went against his honor, the list could go on and on. 

Yukimura obviously wanted this tennis team more than anyone and as soon as possible. However, Sanada was his very good and precious friend. After seeing Sanada’s obvious discomfort, and how Sanada’s eyes looked like they were going to pop right out of their sockets, Yukimura decided they should come up with a new, more legal plan. 

“Ah, Fuji, how about something more…legal?” Yukimura lightly suggested.

“Hmm? Such as?” Fuji questioned. 

“I was thinking…”

Yukimura’s plan was straightforward. He proposed to simply ask the administrator in charge of club activities if they could merge with their sister school “Tokyo University of Culinary Arts” for sports events. The reasoning was that since they were only mere fine arts majors ‘none of them were very good at tennis’ and otherwise they would have no chance to win a game against opposing schools. 

Come Monday morning, Yukimura did just that, in his meeting with the school club coordinator Yukimura went on and on about the ‘poor, poor tennis club’ with not enough members and ‘no chance’ at winning a single game. Sanada was convinced that it would never work and that no one would believe in this fantasyland where Yukimura wasn’t very good in tennis. Yukimura was, after all, The Child of God and very famous in the tennis realm. But contrary to Sanada’s beliefs, the school’s club coordinator took the bait. [Obviously he never read or watched the news about junior high or high school sports! What a loser.] The club coordinator felt sorry for the tennis team, as it would be the university’s very first sports club ever. The very next day, the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and the Tokyo University of Culinary Arts signed an agreement that when it came to sports related events their students could merge together to form a team. 

*****

Monday morning, as Shishido was walking by the practice rooms to his Music Theory 101 class, he heard one the most beautiful, melodic voices he had ever heard in his life (besides Ootori’s of course). Suddenly, a familiar purple blob of hair emerged from the practice room with the harmonious voice. 

“Shishido? Former Hyotei student right? fufufu I have stumbled across something interesting!” The familiar person talked to him, but he couldn’t quite remember who it was or where he knew them from.

“Yes...that’s me…” Shishido said awkwardly, trying to escape to his theory class.

“It’s me! Mizuki Hajime! Former manager of St. Rudolph tennis club.” Mizuki waved his arms up and down, seeming somewhat distressed that Shishido didn’t remember him.

 _Right…that guy_ “Look I’ve got to get to class” Shishido again tried to escape down the hallway.

“I know all about your secret tennis team. Fufufu.” Mizuki chuckled evilly, nonchalantly twirling a strand of hair around his right index finger. 

“Yeah…it’s no secret. There are posters all over campus advertising the club!” Shishido rolled his eyes, walking away. 

“I heard you guys are hurting for members.” Mizuki said haughtily, still twirling that strand of hair around his index finger.

“Actually, I think we got it figured out, Yukimura should be finalizing things with the school administrator right about now.” Shishido informed Mizuki, turning towards the direction of his classroom.

_What? Saturday they only had 4 members! How could they have possibly found 3 members in less than a day? This goes completely against my calculations. By this point they should have been practically begging me to join the team!_

“You-you better let me on that team, or else! Or else… I’m going to tell everyone your little secret with Ootori!” Mizuki threatened.

“What? What ‘secret’?” Shishido sighed. “If you want to join the team, talk to Yukimura, not me. I’m sure he’ll be happy to let you join. But don’t think I’m telling you this because of my so-called ‘secret with Choutarou.’ We don’t have any secrets, alright?” Shishido clarified, stalking off to his theory class. 

*****

_Time: Tuesday afternoon, 4:00_

_Location: Kahlo commons, corner booth_

Now the tennis team consisted of 7 members, Yukimura, Sanada, Fuji, Shishido, Marui, Jirou, and Eiji. 7 college aged boys were probably too many people to squeeze into one of the Kahlo commons booths, but according to Yukimura the corner booth was ‘their spot,’ so they did so anyways. Yukimura, Sanada, and Marui (or the ex-Rikkai gang) sat on the right hand side of the booth, while Jirou, Eiji, and Fuji sat on the left hand side. Shishido was smart enough to pull up a chair from another table and sit at the end of the booth. Unfortunately for Fuji and Eiji, Jirou was sprawled out asleep and taking up about 2/3 of the bench space, leaving only a small 1/3 bench of space for Eiji and Fuji to share. Fuji sat wedged in the middle of Jirou and Eiji (who was nearly falling on the floor). 

Fuji was slightly tempted to ‘accidentally’ push Eiji off the bench and claim the remaining 1/3 bench space for himself. But, Eiji was his good friend, so he didn’t do this. That stupid Shishido had also taken the last free chair in the Kahlo commons for himself, so Fuji and Eiji had no other options but to patiently wait for this (pointless) meeting to be over with. 

“Okay, everyone, I have two big announcements!” Yukimura declared cheerfully. “First, the school administrator accepted our proposal to merge with the students of The Tokyo University of Culinary Arts for sporting events. So, we are officially a team!”

At this everyone cheered.

“Second, we have a new member of the team. Everyone please welcome Mizuki Hajime!”

As if rehearsed, Mizuki made his grand entrance by gracefully walking out from behind a random large pillar. He was dressed in a bright flashy purple outfit that complimented his hair nicely. 

Mostly everyone, except for Fuji, Shishido and Yukimura, just stared in shock at who the new teammate was. 

Fuji was not impressed. “Ah. Mizuki? Why? We already have 7 members.” Fuji cordially remarked, smiling. Inside his head he was thinking _We don’t need him! Kick him off the team!_

“This is bad…” Eiji whispered. 

“It’s good to have at least 8 members. If someone gets sick or hurt we’ll need a replacement. In fact, I would be happy if even more people joined the team!” Yukimura beamed.

“I’m afraid there’s not anymore room for him here…” Fuji casually remarked, gesturing to the little sixth of a bench of space under his butt. 

The only comforting thing about this situation was, since there were no more empty seats, Mizuki had to awkwardly stand throughout the duration of the meeting.


	6. Our Colorific Tennis

Finally the Tokyo school for the Fine Arts and Culinary arts were going to have their first official practice. Of course, since everyone is pretty much obsessed with tennis, they had been practicing anyway. This was just the first official practice.

There was one slight problem, which was neither of their schools had any tennis courts! Luckily Yukimura already thought of this and worked out a simple solution. 

_Dear teammates,_

_Please remember tomorrow we are meeting at 7:00am at the street courts near the metro station. Attached is a map. Please don’t be tardy._

_Your dear Captain,_

_Yukimura Seiichi_

*****

As seen in the email, Yukimura had apparently already designated himself as Captain. Something about having ‘previous experience.’ Mostly, everyone didn’t care. There was just one annoying person, who always seemed to talk back and have opinions about things. 

“You can’t just declare yourself as captain! Aren’t we supposed to vote on this or something?” Shishido asked.

“Did you vote for your previous captain?” Sanada inquired.

“Well no…”

“And, do you have a better idea of who would make a good captain?” Yukimura asked sweetly, like he was talking to a small child.

_Fuji is a definite no, too creepy. On that same note, no to Mizuki. Kikumaru is another no, too hyper. Jirou is too sleepy. Marui might be okay, but he’s too laid back, and especially with his former captain and vice-captain here he’d never do it._

“Err…” 

“I thought so” Yukimura smiled.

*****

At the practice, the first order of business was, naturally, to designate the regulars positions for the upcoming Kanto tournament. In a normal tennis club, they would have some kind of intra-school ranking tournament and divvy up the positions that way. But, according to Yukimura, it would be faster to assign positions based on the order people joined the club. When the team members arrived at the street courts, a sign was posted (in calligraphy) on the gates.

The ranking looked like:

Singles 1: Yukimura Seiichi

Singles 2: Sanada Genichirou

Singles 3: Fuji Shyusuke

Doubles 1: Shishido Ryou and Kikumaru Eiji

Doubles 2: Marui Bunta and Akutagawa Jirou

Reserve: Mizuki Hajime

“Hmm? Why am I paired up with Jirou?” Marui mused thoughtfully, chewing his green apple gum.

If Jirou were there, he probably would have said something along the lines of “What? Marui-kuuun! You don’t want to be my partner? Why? Why?” Next to Yukimura, Jirou was probably the most excited about the formation of the tennis team, because it meant he got to play on the same team as two of his idols, Fuji and Marui! He even set five separate alarms on his iPhone, in preparation for the first practice. Too bad his phone ran out of battery overnight. 

“Don’t be afraid of Akutagawa and his man-crush, Marui” Fuji chided, smirking.

“It’s not that! It’s just our play styles don’t even match up, we’re both ‘serve and volley’ players.” Actually, Marui was pretty cool with Jirou’s idol-obsession. It meant at least someone was recognizing his genius talent.

“Well, if you hadn’t already noticed, we have three ‘serve and volley’ players and only one ‘counter puncher,’ so some of us will have to make sacrifices.” Yukimura stated.

“Well, I’m an ‘all-rounder,’ so I could—“ Mizuki started.

But, Fuji quickly cut him off, whispering, “Don’t even think about it Mizuki” in a low voice only audible to the hair twirler’s ears. 

“What if I pair up with Marui, Fuji pairs up with Kikumaru, and Jirou moves up to Singles 3? Fuji and Kikumaru have played doubles together before and Jirou usually plays singles anyways.” Shishido offered.

“What?!” Eiji screamed, causing everyone to cover their ears in pain. “How dare you try and break up the ‘Gilver pair?’”

“The what?” Shishido looked at Eiji, irritated and confused.

“Gilver Pair, the combination of the Golden Pair and Silver pair. A.K.A the tennis world’s newest hottest coolest thing of this year!” Eiji stated emphatically. 

“Did you just come up with that right now?” Marui asked, amused.

“Yeah, so?” Eiji retorted, dramatically placing a hand on his hip and giving Marui ‘a look’.

“Ahh, well, it can’t be helped. We wouldn’t want to break up our precious ‘Gilver pair,’ so we’ll leave things as they are.” Fuji said quietly.

But of course, he just wanted to keep his singles spot. 

“Whatever, Jirou and I will figure something out. Well, if he ever shows up to practice, that is.” Marui sighed, blowing a bubble with his gum. 

The diligent Sanada, who had been dutifully running laps like they were probably supposed to be doing instead of gabbing about the regulars line up, marched over to their little confab. 

“I had heard about this happening from Atobe. This isn’t acceptable behavior from a tennis regular!”

“Hmm. I had hoped having Marui on the same team as Jirou would keep him awake. But…it seems I’m mistaken.” Yukimura chimed in. 

“Fufufu. If this keeps up he won’t be able to keep his spot as a regular. When that happens I’ll” But, Mizuki promptly shut his mouth when he looked up to see a pair of piercing blue eyes giving him a death glare. 

“Okay, enough wasting time! 50 laps around the courts!” Yukimura commanded, leaving everyone in a frenzy to run around the fringes of the street courts. 

As he wore his old mustard yellow Rikkai jersey draped around his shoulders Yukimura realized just how ridiculous everyone looked running around the courts. No—not because they were running around some random street tennis courts on display for all of Tokyo to see. Their outfits just didn’t match. This wouldn’t do at Nationals. 

After practice Yukimura decided to hold an emergency meeting to discuss the topic of team uniforms. After showering and changing into normal clothes the teammates moved to an empty classroom back at their school. Yukimura stood at the front of the classroom, while everyone else sat in the little desks like obedient students.

“I know it doesn’t seem like such an important topic, but think about when we play in tournaments, it will look unprofessional if we don’t have coordinating uniforms. That is why we need to vote on the color of our new uniform.” Yukimura began.

Eiji’s hand quickly shot up into the air. Without waiting to be called on he began talking, “I think it looks kinda cool like this! All of our different outfits together, it’s like a rainbow!” Eiji babbled. “And a rainbow symbolizes togetherness, and unity, and friendship. Like us, because we came from different schools, but now we are together as friends! And-” 

Realizing that he was rambling about nothing, Eiji stopped his monologue and looked around the room sheepishly.

“Ehehe, oops, I got a little carried away….” 

“It’s okay, Eiji.” Fuji said, leaning over to put a sympathetic hand on Eiji’s shoulder. 

“I agree though that we need new uniforms. My vote would be for a light-beige uniform. It’s a classic look and doesn’t distract from our playing.”

“Wah, how boring Fujiko!” Eiji whined. His thinking was the opposite of Fuji’s. He wanted something bright and colorful that would really make them pop and stand out in the crowd.

“I agree.” Marui nodded, blowing a bubble.

“Lame.” Shishido chimed in

“I like it. It’s simple.” Sanada stated.

“Quiet!” Yukimura shushed as he finished writing the word BEIGE on the blackboard. “Everyone needs to have an opportunity to state their ideas and then we’ll do an anonymous vote.”

Mizuki was sitting in the back of the class quietly twirling his hair with a mischievous grin. He also liked the idea of a beige uniform, but he hated to agree with Fuji. So, Mizuki opted for another color he likes “How about lilac?”

“Lame”

“How about RAINBOW!” Eiji shouted, not giving up on his little unity-togetherness-friendship spiel. 

“That would be too expensive.” Sanada chided. _And it would look absolutely ridiculous_ he added to himself

Now Yukimura had beige, lilac, and RAINBOW written on the blackboard. “Any other suggestions?”

“I like red! How about red?” Marui added.

“Finally, a freakin’ normal color” Shishido agreed.

“I like that! Yukimura change mine!” Eiji shouted rather loudly, waving his hand in the air insistently. 

_Someone really needs to remind him to use an inside voice._ “Eiji, remember we’re putting all the choices up on the board and voting later, okay?” Yukimura patiently reminded, in the same tone he had often used with Akaya when they were teammates.

Now the board said: beige, lilac, RAINBOW, red…and mustard yellow. 

Wait, mustard yellow? Who actually put that as one of the choices?

“If there are no further suggestions, please take out a piece of paper and a pen so we can begin the anonymous voting” Yukimura coolly asserted.

“Wait! Who put MUSTARD YELLOW as one of the choices? It’s like the ugly Rikkai-dai uniform, I don’t wanna wear that!” Eiji cried. He really doesn’t know when to keep his mouth closed.

Yukimura and Sanada both shot a death glare in Eiji’s direction. “Mustard Yellow is my choice” Yukimura stated. “It’s very classy and sophisticated.” _Unlike the color someone chose._

With that, the teammates began the anonymous voting. Each member wrote down what color they like the best and then put it in the box at the front of the room.

“Ah, sorry I’m late!” An unmistakably familiar voice called from the classroom door. And no, it wasn’t Jirou. Unfortunately, it looked like he wouldn’t be able to participate in voting for the new uniform color. 

“Renji! You’re just in time!” Yukimura greeted his old friend. “Renji is the unbiased 3rd party who is going to count the votes!” Yukimura explained to the ‘class’

“Unbiased my ass.” Shishido muttered. Looking around the room there were currently 4 Rikkai alumni (counting Renji), 1 Hyotei alumni, 1 St. Rudolph Alumni, and 2 Seigaku Alumni. That data guy was friends with Yukimura and was probably going to do something to help make sure they all walked around in gross mustard yellow jerseys.

“I am almost positive that there will have to be a revote, but I will count these anyways.” Renji stated, quickly thumbing through the 8 votes. “Ah, yes, just as I suspected…” 

“Revote? Why?” Yukimura asked in (maybe pretend) shock.

“You can’t have Red as your tennis uniform color, because another team has already taken that color. My team.” 

There were a couple moments of silence as Renji looked at the other color choices Yukimura had written on the blackboard. 

“The other color choices seem fine,” His eyebrows furrowed “except for RAINBOW, I think that’s against the rules. Too distracting.”

“Ah, sorry everyone I should have checked to see what color other schools were wearing first” But of course Yukimura wasn’t really sorry. This just gave his mustard yellow another chance to become the new uniform color.

Now the blackboard read: Beige, Lilac, Mustard Yellow with ~~red~~ and ~~RAINBOW~~ now crossed off of the list

“Guys”, Shishido whispered to Eiji and Marui, “we have to coordinate our voting, or else we’re all going to be wearing that mustard yellow.”

“Right, I was thinking the same thing.” Eiji whispered a little too loudly.

“Beige or lilac” Marui asked, hesitantly. The question was kind of like asking to make a choice between Fuji or Mizuki. 

But surprisingly, Eiji didn’t hesitate in answering, “Definitely lilac. Beige is too boring for my taste!” 

“Are you sure?” Marui asked in surprise. Fuji and Eiji were best friends. Marui wasn’t sure Eiji was thinking of the full consequences of his actions.

“What other choice do we have? Besides the voting is anonymous, he’ll never know!” Eiji winked mischievously.

The second round of voting commenced. 

Renji began counting the votes, even though he already knew the outcome. Originally, he was going to write how many votes each color got on the board, however after seeing that mustard yellow only got 1 vote he decided against it. Better not to let Yukimura know that Sanada didn’t vote for the mustard yellow as expected. But it was ii data. 

Finally Renji announced the result. “Lilac wins.” 

“What how?! Was it close?” Yukimura seemed uncharacteristically flustered at the outcome.

“Yes, very very close.” Better to not let him know he was the only one who voted for Mustard Yellow.

“Ah, well there’s no helping it. I guess we will have lilac uniforms.” Yukimura said more to himself. 

“But….I have some ideas about the design of the uniform! I was thinking of a big black horizontal stripe right across the chest” Yukimura motioned to where the black stripe on the Rikkai uniforms usually was.

“Oh, brother…” Shishido muttered, rolling his eyes.

It was getting late. Nobody really cared that much about the design of the uniform and everyone wanted to go home.

“I’m cool with that. Let’s just call it a day and go—“ 

“Beige stripe.” Fuji’s icy tone cut Marui off mid-sentence.

“Can’t Fuji just let the whole Mizuki thing go already?” Marui looked at Eiji incredulously. 

“I don’t really care so much about the color, as long as we can have the stripe.” Yukimura negotiated, nodding his head.

“Yay! This is great! Now everyone wins! Mizuki gets his lilac uniform, Yukimura gets his stripe, and Fuji gets his beige!” Eiji cheered, jumping up on his desk triumphantly. 

“So who exactly will be paying for these new uniforms? Or do you suggest that we pay for them out of pocket, Yukimura?” Sanada inquired. 

It was a legitimate question. They were a newly formed club without many funds and new uniforms weren’t cheap. Everyone remained silent. It was obvious that no one had really thought through this very carefully. Maybe lilac uniforms with a beige stripe were just a mere pipe dream.

“I vote Jirou to pay for the new uniforms!” Marui suddenly spoke up. 

“I second that. He’s not here today and he can definitely afford it.” Shishido agreed.

“So, it’s settled then. Akutagawa will pay for our new uniforms. Marui, I’ll leave you in charge of informing him” Yukimura said. 

“Ah, well, I think the one to inform Jirou of this news will be…Kikumaru!” Marui flashed a toothy smile pointing a finger in Eiji’s direction.


	7. Weekend Bonding

The culinary clique (Eiji, Marui, Jirou) insisted that the team needed to go on a training retreat to get to know each other better. They emphasized that in doubles, finding a connection with your partner is one of the key aspects of winning. Yukimura wholeheartedly agreed that they should have a training camp to beef up before the University division Kanto tournament. There would be lots of seeded schools there with top players from across Japan, and this was The Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Culinary Arts’ first year attending, so they needed to be at their best.

The problem with a weekend retreat was Sanada and Shishido practically had choir class every day, even Saturday! Shishido might have been willing to miss his class a couple of times for the retreat, but Sanada most definitely wouldn’t. 

Therefore, a compromise was made. Instead of going to hike up some forlorn mountain in the middle of nowhere, the team would stay over at Jirou’s house, conveniently located near the Tokyo University of Fine Arts. Jirou commuted from his parent’s home, because his parents wanted to make sure he got enough rest every night in a proper bed, not a stinky dirty dorm bed. Jirou didn’t mind, he loved his big fluffy bed! 

*****

The retreat would be held Friday morning through Monday night, giving them 4 whole days to bond…err…train…before the tournament. 

Early Friday morning everyone arrived at Jirou’s house, only to find he was still asleep. They invited themselves into the house anyway and made themselves comfortable in Jirou’s large living room. Fuji walked in first and placed his little potted Echinocactus, Ansel, on the living room’s large coffee table. 

“Fuji, you brought your cactus? You couldn’t bother to leave it in the dorm for 4 days, huh?” Kikumaru snickered.

“I don’t trust my roommate around little Ansel, he’s always trying to water him.” Fuji answered.

“I completely understand, I couldn’t bear to leave my dear Aimee alone in the dorms either” Yukimura nodded as he set a giant pot of pure white gardenias down on the coffee table.

“Maybe, Ansel and Aimee will make friends on our retreat!” Kikumaru smiled. _Ahhh_ _bonding!_

“Eww. You two are getting dirt and grime all over the living room.” Mizuki scolded. “Move those things over, I need a place for my travel antique tea set.” Mizuki pulled out some rubber gloves from his book bag and attempted to dust off some non-existent dirt. After cleaning the table to his satisfaction, Mizuki placed a gorgeous early 1900’s English travel tea set in the center of the table. 

It was one of the most beautiful antiques Fuji had ever seen. Every cup had been delicately painted with a peach colored rose and had shiny golden trim on the handle. Fuji was torn between feeling jealous of Mizuki for getting his hands on such a good find, and feeling extreme admiration for Mizuki for having such amazing taste. 

Suddenly everyone heard a bunch of loud clanking against the coffee table and looked down to see Marui dumping out his backpack full of candy. “I also brought all this candy, if you guys are nice, maybe you can have one or two.” Marui informed. 

“Watch it! Your candy is banging against my precious travel antique!” Mizuki shrieked. Rubber gloves still on, he desperately tried to repel the pieces flying at the tea set.

“I thought I specified there was to be no sweets of any sort on this excursion!” Sanada huffed.

“Awww. Come on! Live a little!” Marui laughed.

Because they would be away from home for a while, it seemed everyone had decided to bring along some kind of little memento so they wouldn’t get homesick. Even Sanada brought his important family rock. But, he didn’t trust Aimee and Ansel around his rock, so he left it in his book bag. 

Naturally, Kikumaru brought Daigorou. But it wasn’t the giant Daigorou everyone remembered. He got a new keychain one named Daigorou Jr. He was 18 now, which meant he was an adult and had to start doing adult things, like carrying around a keychain teddy bear instead of the real thing. 

Shishido didn’t think it was fair that everyone got to bring their pets and special items. If he could have, Shishido would have brought his dog. Instead, he just had the pictures of his dog in his wallet. 

Just at that moment, Jirou moseyed on downstairs, still dressed in his pajamas. 

“Oh, you guys are already here! Yaaaaay! I’m so excited for the sleepover!” Jirou beamed, jumping into the air excitedly.

“Training retreat.” Sanada corrected.

“My house is pretty big, and there’s enough beds for everyone since my older sister moved out. But…I thought it would be more fun to have our sleepover commoner style and sleep on the floor!” Jirou explained eagerly.

“Commoner style? You’ve been talking too much with Atobe…” Shishido remarked.

“I refuse, I need my own bed.” Mizuki frowned. 

“Right now, sleeping arrangements are not important. It’s already almost 6:00am we need to begin our training, hurry and get dressed, Akutagawa.” Yukimura directed. 

“Get dressed? Oh yeah! That reminds me! Our uniforms are here guys, they just arrived yesterday! We can wear them on the retreat and be all matchy matchy!” Jirou cheered, gesturing to a large brown box near the front door.

“Oh…yay…” Shishido feigned excitement. 

With that everyone put on the lilac uniforms with a beige stripe. The uniforms all looked nice except…

“Why does it only say ‘Art University’? I don’t go to Art school I go to cooking school!” Kikumaru pointed out.

“Umm…well…the thing is…It was much cheaper to have them print ‘Art University’ on the back of the uniform rather than ‘Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Culinary Arts”

“Why do they say PROPERTY OF ATOBE on the back?!” Marui asked.

“Yes, the Atobe logo is larger than our school’s.” Sanada noted.

“Hyotei students and alumni get a good deal on uniforms from the Atobe Corporation!” Jirou enthused.

Yukimura sighed. “It can’t be helped. The important thing is that we look coordinated.”    


*****

Besides playing tennis all day long, Yukimura decided they needed to build-up their muscles. Their school didn’t have a big fancy gym with weight equipment like the other schools and they were all too poor to afford a gym membership. Even Jirou had used all of his allowance to buy them new uniforms. Shishido, who also went to Hyotei, swore he didn’t have any money either, but everyone knew he was a penny-pinching liar. Yukimura decided the best course of action would be to take everyone to the local park.

“Woo! The park! The park!” Eiji cheered.

“Why are we going to the park, Yukimura?” Sanada asked stoically. 

“This” Yukimura said, gesturing to the exercise equipment around the park.

In the mornings, the park is the local hangout for the elderly. Elderly people always manage to get up insanely early and do some fast walking and other types of exercisy things to jumpstart the day. Now, because of this many parks have set up exercise machines for the elderly, in order to make the park a fun, welcoming environment for their health. 

“I think this exercise equipment is for old people.” Marui pointed out.

“Not old people Marui, the elderly.” Sanada chided. Kids these days are so rude. 

“Whatever” Marui rolled his eyes. 

“It doesn’t matter, there’s no rule that says we can’t use it. It’s fair game.” Yukimura stated.

“There’s no way I’m touching that exercise equipment that has been outside.” Mizuki said in disgust. 

Ignoring Mizuki’s comment, Yukimura went on to give the instructions. “Okay, I have split us up into teams of two. Marui and Jirou will be on one team starting with the elliptical. Shishido and Eiji are starting with the chest press. Fuji and Mizuki are starting with the bench sit-ups. Sanada and I will start with the rower. Work for 20 minutes on each machine before rotating in a clockwise direction. If there is someone occupying the machine, which you need to use, please kindly explain to them how our upcoming tournament is more important than their daily workout. Now, let’s begin, meet back in two hours.”

“Wait wait wait! You can’t seriously intend to put Mizuki and Fuji on the same team. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen!” Kikumaru said, exasperatedly flailing his arms in the air.

“Yeah, I see how you made the teams. It’s just the doubles teams and then you wanted Sanada to be your partner. Fuji and Mizuki were the odd ones out so…” Marui trailed off, methodically chewing his gum. 

“I believe you’re mistaken. The teams were arbitrarily decided by height. The person with the height closest to yours is your partner. It has nothing to do with the doubles teams whatsoever.” Yukimura informed. 

*****

_ At the Chest Press: _

The last thing anyone probably expected was for the Kikumaru-Shishido team, A.K.A. the Gilver pair, to be the hardest working of the bunch (save Yukimura and Sanada). Kikumaru fervently cheered on his partner, telling him what a good job they were doing. Every 5 minutes the pair broke to do a power high-five. Kikumaru and Shishido definitely knew the meaning of  _ teamwork _ . 

The same level of enthusiasm could not be said for the other teams…

_ At the Elliptical: _

Jirou needed to take his pre-training nap before anything could happen, so Marui was left to do the elliptical exercise by himself. Marui fished around in the pocket of his uniform for some of the candy he snuck in there earlier. Sanada and Yukimura were all the way on the other side of the court, so there was no way he would get caught. Plus, now that Jirou was asleep he didn’t have to share. Perfect.

_ At the Bench Sit-ups: _

A few stations over, Mizuki was standing with his arms crossed muttering something about the park equipment being ‘infested with germs.’ 

From a distance, it looked like Fuji was following the instructions to a T, but in reality Fuji was just laying down on the bench (for ‘bench sit-ups) taking photos. 

Unfortunately for them, Yukimura has eyes in the back of his head. He is The Child of God. He sees ALL

_ Back at The Elliptical: _

At Yukimura’s direction, Sanada marched up to the sleeping Jirou and the sweets eating Marui. 

“Yukimura has instructed me to assign the two of you 100 laps around the playground.” Sanada informed.

Marui jumped of the elliptical to begin his laps, but Sanada put a hand up to stop him.

“First spit out that candy and hand me the remaining sweets in your pockets” Sanada demanded.

“Darn it!” Marui said, but did as instructed. 

Sanada noticed Jirou was not making any movement to wake up and heed Captain Yukimura’s orders. This annoyed him.

“You know, the only way to wake up Jirou-kun is to tickle him!” Marui said seriously, trying not to crack a grin.

Sanada wasn’t one to tickle people. However, out of everyone there, except Shishido [who was busy actually doing the assigned training] Marui seemed to know Akutagawa the best, so perhaps there was some truth to the tickle thing. 

It was for the team. For Yukimura’s team. 

Sanada tickled Jirou. 

Jirou’s face slowly broke into a wide grin, after a couple more seconds Jirou began making small giggling sounds, despite still being asleep. 

Sanada felt slightly stupid as he sensed the eyes of several passersby upon him. But then, Jirou’s eyes finally opened, and Sanada felt a wash of relief overcome him. The tickling trick had worked! He would have to remember this next time he was trying to wake-up his nephew Sasuke for school.

Marui couldn’t hold it in anymore. He broke into a fit of raucous laughter, nearly choking on the gum he was attempting to hide in his mouth. He couldn’t believe Sanada had actually gone through with it. 

“Ahahaha! You…actually…hahaha” Marui wheezed. 

“200 laps around the playground, Marui! Akutagawa, 100 laps! Now!” Sanada yelled furiously. That Marui had made him lose face in front of Tokyo’s entire elderly population (and Yukimura!) for some cheap prank. The nerve!

_ Back at the Bench Sit ups: _

“Excuse me, Fuji, Mizuki!” Yukimura approached the pair, with his now lilac jacket draped over his shoulders. “Mizuki! Why are you just standing there instead of completing the exercise properly? And, Fuji, I thought you told me before that you didn't take pictures of people because you were a ‘landscape photographer’ or something. So tell me, why are you laying there taking pictures of Mizuki’s face?!” Yukimura asked sternly, but politely. 

“You’ve been taking pictures of me this entire time?!” Mizuki shouted in surprise. 

Completely ignoring Mizuki’s comment, Fuji sat up and turned towards Yukimura. “The theme this week for my photography class is ‘juxtaposition.’ When I sat down, I immediately saw the ugliness of Mizuki’s angry face juxtaposed with the beauty of the rising sun! I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to capture it on film.”

“My FACE isn’t UGLY!” Mizuki yelled. 

“Both of you, please do 100 laps around the playground, and then complete the assigned training regime. “ Yukimura commanded. “And try to remember this is a  _ team _ exercise.” 

Fuji walked off a little too gleefully towards the playground, camera still in hand. Before Mizuki was able to follow, Yukimura handed him a pocket-sized bottle of hand sanitizer in hopes he would be able to properly complete the exercise upon his return. Mizuki silently thanked his new captain, clutching the cherry scented hand sanitizer as he made his way towards the playground. Smiling, he thought Yukimura wasn’t such a bad guy. 


	8. Weekend Bonding II

“Now, that everyone’s finished with the warm-up-“ 

“THAT was just a WARM-UP?!” Marui shouted, cutting Yukimura off mid-sentence.

“Ahem” Yukimura cleared his throat, giving Marui a look of disapproval. 

“Don’t interrupt Captain Yukimura!” Sanada bellowed. But actually, his saying that was kind of also interrupting Yukimura, wasn’t it?

“Ahem!” Yukimura coughed rather loudly before continuing. “As I was saying, now that we’ve all completed the warm-up exercise. Let’s move on to---“

“PLAY TENNIS!” This time it was Kikumaru who rudely interrupted the Captain.

“Yes, exactly right, play tennis.” Yukimura nodded.

Everyone looked quite pleased at the prospect of playing tennis; after all they were a bunch of tennis freak-os.

“But, first” Yukimura continued, “We will be lightly jogging back to the street tennis courts” 

This warranted some groans and mutters of disapproval from the teammates. Everyone knew Yukimura’s definition of ‘lightly jogging’ was just plain running. 

“But, Yukimura, those courts are at least 15 kilometers away!” Shishido protested. 

*****

“You know, I was thinking….” Kikumaru said, jogging next to his new partner, “we need to come up with names for the rest of the teams!”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.” Shishido stated bluntly. 

“We’re only in these teams for three days.” Mizuki, smartly pointed out, as he and his partner Fuji came jogging directly behind the Gilver pair. 

“I’m not talking about _these_ teams, I’m talking about our doubles 2 team. Marui and Jirou still don’t have a team name. If a doubles team doesn’t have a name, well, they can’t legally be considered a doubles team.” Kikumaru reasoned. 

“Hmm…it’s true.” Fuji nodded seriously.

“I already thought of a name for our team. ‘Genius Pair.’ ” Marui stated as he and Jirou came to join the two pairs of joggers. 

“Oooh Marui-kun! You’re so smart!” Jirou applauded.

“I feel like that name doesn’t really suit you two.” Shishido said. _Declaring yourself as a genius is so lame._

“Yeah! When I hear the name ‘Genius’ I immediately think of Fuji! So, my first thought is that the Genius pair would somehow involve Fuji! But instead it’s Marui and Akutagagwa. How weird.” Kikumaru agreed.

“I think, perhaps, Marui wants to be called the Genius pair, because he enjoys calling himself a Genius.” Mizuki mused, fingering a lock of purple hair. 

“Maybe Marui should play doubles with Fuji then. That way the name ‘Genius pair’ could actually make sense.” Kikumaru reasoned.

“What? Marui-kun, we never even got to play doubles once together and now you already want to leave?” Jirou asked Marui in distress.

“Akutagawa, calm down. How about instead of changing our doubles partners around, we just change the name.”

“How about ‘addict pair?’“ Mizuki suggested. 

“Huh? I’m not an addict!” Marui refuted. 

“Yes, you are! You’re a candy addict! And, Akutagawa here is a sleeping addict!” Kikumaru pointed out.

“So, it’s the ‘addict pair’ now?” Fuji asked casually.

“Nooooo!” Marui moaned.

“What about ‘unbreakable habit pair’!” Eiji exclaimed. “It’s more upbeat and has a winning ring to it. We can call them the UH pair for short!”

“Like, uhhh I can’t think of a very good name?!” Marui asked sarcastically. Genius pair was a pretty good name if you asked him. 

“NO! Like, UH! The noise people make after hitting back a tennis ball in a ferocious competition! Duh, Marui.” Kikumaru rolled his eyes. 

“I love it! Kikumaru, you’re the greatest!” Jirou enthused. 

This entire conversation, Yukimura and his partner Sanada had taken the lead of the pack and were many strides ahead of the rest of the team. Sanada glanced back, and to his horror realized his teammates were not 100% focused on the task at hand! He was about to yell something, when Yukimura put up a hand to silence him.

Yukimura turned around to face his teammates, now jogging backwards. “Quickly now! Let’s try to make it back to the tennis courts in 2 minutes! It will be fun!”

Before anyone had time to protest, Yukimura was running off at full speed in the direction of the street courts. Somehow, after playing against Echizen Ryoma that one time, Yukimura had developed a very twisted sense of fun. 

*****

After a long sweaty day of training the team arrived home at around 5:00pm. Everyone was starving, because no one had the forethought to pack lunches. Most of them hadn’t eaten anything the entire day. Poor Sanada and Shishido had to rush off to their choir practice without anything to eat or without taking a shower. 

Since Marui, Jirou and Eiji all attended the School for culinary arts, they decided to rotate days to cook for the team during the retreat. Tonight was Marui’s night to cook. 

“My house has five bathrooms! So, while Marui is cooking our dinner we can all take a bath” Jirou informed his teammates.

Murmurs of approval were heard from the teammates. Because they are MEN it didn’t take them very long to take a bath. Except for Mizuki, Fuji, Yukimura, and Eiji, because they have to use many special products in their hair. And, Jirou, because he fell asleep. When the clean crew returned to the kitchen, they were shocked to find Marui had already finished his bowl of instant ramen.

“Instant ramen! Is this what they teach you in Culinary school?” Mizuki spat. He was not going to eat that trash.

“Finally you guys are finished with your baths, that took like forever. I think your food got cold. Sorry.” Marui gestured to the five bowls of instant ramen sitting at Jirou’s kitchen table. 

Eiji shuddered in disgust. When ramen gets cold, it gets all slimy and sticks together. He didn’t want to eat it! “I’ll just whip up something else for us to eat real fast.” Eiji offered.

“Ah. Thank you Kikumaru. I’m famished.” Yukimura said graciously. 

“No need. I like it better like this actually.” Fuji smiled, slurping the cold ramen. 

“I can’t believe Marui-kun made this ramen just for me! I feel so special!” Jirou grinned, joining Fuji at the table. He too began slurping the cold, slimy ramen. 

*****

Sanada and Shishido returned to the wonderfully fragrant smell of Kikumaru’s omelets. Or omelet rather… Kikumaru decided it would be better and faster to make one GIANT omelet that took up the space of Jirou’s entire kitchen table. 

“Did you know when you share and omelet with someone you forge a friendship for life?” Kikumaru spouted randomly, glancing to his right at Shishido. Shishido was trying hard to focus on his food, ignore the hyper guy on his left, and not think about how much he missed his old doubles partner.

Kikumaru next looked to his left, where Yukimura was seated and smiled at the scene before him. _An omelet sharing ritual!_

Sanada, who was seated directly across from Yukimura, was dutifully piling food on to Yukimura’s plate, although Sanada himself was obviously ravenous. Yukimura was the Captain and Sanada’s best friend; it was important to make sure he had enough to eat! Even though Yukimura knew Sanada was starving, maybe even hungrier than he was, Yukimura just pleasantly sat and watched Sanada fill his plate with omelet. 

Then there was Mizuki. Poor Mizuki’s partner wasn’t there to share the omelet with him. Mizuki had to eat all alone, but he didn’t look too disappointed by it. 

_Free time was set-aside at the end of the day to work on homework_

Yukimura sat in an armchair in the corner of the living room. He had a big easel set up and was working on painting a portrait of his lovely Aimee. Sanada was sitting next to Yukimura, working hard on a piece of calligraphy. This wasn’t his homework. It was just something he had to do. 

Fuji wasn’t working on any homework. He was kneeling next to the coffee table, just talking casually to his cactus, Ansel, about his day. Fuji didn’t have to work on homework because he was a genius. Also, he had already taken those pictures of Mizuki and the sunrise earlier. 

Mizuki was also not working on any homework, he was instead rummaging through his bag pulling out large bags of loose leaf tea. 

“Would anyone like some tea? I brought my travel tea set.” Mizuki offered.

“I’m not drinking tea out of that tea cup, it probably had lead in it.” Sanada scoffed. 

Mizuki glared at Sanada. 

“I’ll take some tea.” Fuji smiled. Even if it meant being nice to the enemy, a chance to hold the antique English tea cup in with his own hands…

Mizuki handed Fuji a piping hot cup of Earl Grey tea.

“Look at them. Making friends.” Yukimura softly cooed, only loud enough for Sanada to hear. “Mizuki, I’ll take some tea too if you don’t mind” Yukimura smiled.

When Mizuki was about to hand Yukimura the steaming hot cup of tea, Sanada suddenly swatted it away.

Just in time, Kikumaru caught the teacup with his ultra quick reflexes and handed it directly to Yukimura. Mizuki and Fuji were giving Sanada the death glare of ‘you almost broke a very precious antique’

“No, Yukimura, you mustn’t! The cups are poison!” Sanada yelled.

But, it was too late, Yukimura was already drinking the lead tainted tea! “Relax Sanada, it’s just a little lead.” Yukimura laughed.

Just then, Shishido groaned loudly, causing everyone to look up at him. “I hate transposing. C to B flat is so hard!”

“Here, have some tea, it’ll help you calm down” Mizuki said, handing Shishido a cup of warm Earl Grey tea. Glancing over at Shishido’s homework, he realized something was terribly wrong.

“Oh dear, it seems you're transposing all of this completely in reverse. You need to go up a whole step Shishido, not down a half step!”

“Oh, thanks Mizuki. I never realized you were so good at music. Almost as good as Choutarou.”

“Did you hear that Ansel?” Fuji whispered to the cactus, “Shishido usually has Ootori help him write his homework, but now that Ootori isn’t here he struggles. Fufufu”

“That’s not what I said!” Shishido flushed. 

Suddenly everyone heard a loud “Kyaaaaa” and looked up to see Sanada with his Kendo sword doing practice swings across the room. This also isn’t part of his homework. But, it’s something he has to do, or else he might stop being a Sanada. 

“Can you stop being so loud? I’m trying to work on my ‘Theory of Cooking Yummy Things’ essay.” Kikumaru stated. Kikumaru was flipped upside-down on one of Jirou’s couches, so his head dangled off the seat cushion. He had his laptop perched on his stomach.

Everyone just stared at Kikumaru. Had he really just asked someone else to be quiet?

“What? You’re still working on that essay? I totally finished it in like 20 minutes. Because I’m a genius!” Marui stated smugly.

Jirou was asleep on one of his other couches. But if he were awake he would say something along the lines of “Wow, Marui-kun you’re so amazing and cool!”

“How did you finish it so quickly?” Fuji asked, still facing the direction of his cactus, Ansel.

“Copy and paste from Wikipedia. It’s not like the Professor actually takes the time to read those anyway” Marui answered, unashamed of his blatant plagiarism

“OH! Great idea!” Kikumaru shouted as he went to find the Wikipedia page all about ‘cooking yummy things’

“Tarundoru!” Sanada shouted, eyes still focused ahead on the make-believe enemy he was hitting with a wooden Kendo sword


	9. An Unexpected Visitor

When Kirihara Akaya found out Yukimura was creating a Tennis club he knew exactly where he wanted to go to school next year. No, he knew where he _needed_ to go to school. It wasn’t that he missed being teammates with Yukimura, Sanada and Marui or anything! That _definitely_ wasn’t it. He just still had some unfinished business with the ex-Rikkai demons.

Without a second thought, Kirihara Akaya made plans to go on a ‘college visit’ and investigate Yukimura’s new team. The Wednesday before the University division Kanto tournament, instead of heading off to school like normal, he took a bus all the way from Kanagawa to Tokyo. The buses were running early, and Kirihara managed to arrive at 7:40am, just 20 minutes before Yukimura’s team was set to begin practice. 

“Dang, I could have slept in for like 20 more minutes.” Kirihara mumbled to himself, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He made his way over to the street courts where Yanagi told him Yukimura’s team usually practiced. A strange sign was posted on the gate:

_These courts have been reserved from 8:00 – 9:00am by the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Culinary Arts Tennis Team. There is another set of street courts just 10 minutes away by bus. [see map and detailed directions below]_

_Any questions please contact Yukimura Seiichi [123-4567-8900]_

Kirihara didn’t bother to keep reading the sign, because it was a little long and in calligraphy which was all swirly and hard to read. Kirihara looked up to see that, although there was still 20 minutes before practice officially began, Sanada was, of course, already there running laps around the courts. 

“Sanada, it seems we have a guest.” 

Kirihara turned his head to find he was merely steps away from his ex-captain. How creepy. Where was Yukimura hiding all that time?

“Kirihara don’t slack off on your new duties as Captain of Rikkai High!” Sanada scolded from across the courts (still running his laps).

“I’m not! We’re taking a day off!” Kirihara insisted. He wasn’t irresponsible, he texted the whole team that morning telling them not to come to practice. It’s good to have a rest day every now and then. 

“A day off?! It’s a Wednesday, Tarundoru!” Sanada bellowed. This year was Kirihara’s first year being a captain all on his own, and Sanada wasn’t liking how things were turning out. [Being captain of Rikkai-dai’s Junior high division didn’t count, because Yukimura had still micromanaged everything from the high-school division.] Kirihara was going to tarnish the Rikkai name, bring shame upon himself, his family, and worst of all Yukimura as a former Rikkai-high Tennis club captain….

“I’m on a college visit, and I wanted to check out Captain Yukimura’s new Tennis team. Maybe if you guys are lucky, next year the great Kirihara Akaya will come here and join your team!“ Kirihara boasted.

“But Kirihara, this is an auditioned school and you don’t have any artistic talents.” Sanada stated bluntly. 

“Sanada…” Yukimura warned. Shaking his head slowly. _Let the kid dream a little._

“Not true!” Kirihara retorted. “I got a B+ on my recorder test, I can audition on that!” 

Five minutes before practice was set to start some of the other members began arriving. 

Upon seeing Kirihara, Marui accidentally spit out his green apple gum from the shock. “You! You jerk! That was my LAST piece of gum!” Marui fumed. Sanada had a rule about bringing ‘sugary substances’ on the courts, so Marui unfortunately didn’t have any backup gum. Yukimura had been kind enough to allow Marui to have one piece of gum per practice, but stupid Kirihara practically forced him to spit it on the ground, the nerve!

“He’s on a college visit, apparently.” Yukimura informed them. Hopefully they would still be able to start practice on time despite the minor distraction.

“Look everyone is back together again!” Kirihara commented joyfully, ignoring Marui’s distress. 

“Well, almost everyone…Niou-senpai, Jackal-senpai, Yagyuu-senpai, and Yanagi-senpai are missing” Kirihara remarked, counting the names of his former teammates on his fingers. “Too bad.” 

At the mention of Jackal’s name, Marui’s mood further began to sour. He crossed his arms glaring poignantly at Kirihara, “Jackal’s still fixated on going to college in Brazil, even after I told him about our cool awesome tennis team.” 

“Forget about Jackal! You have a new doubles partner now, right?” Kirihara reasoned. He was either not noticing or pretending not to notice Marui’s annoyance, it wasn’t too clear. 

Marui glanced to his right where Jirou was standing…wait no…sleeping? _Akaya’s right, Jirou’s a great doubles partner! Oh…who am I kidding! I really want Jackal to move back already…_ Marui sighed reluctantly.

“How is Jackal by the way? I haven’t heard from him in a while.” Yukimura remarked coolly. 

“Oh…right. He told me to tell you guys ‘hi’ like last week, but I was extremely busy writing my “Theory of Cooking Yummy Things” essay. I didn’t have time.” Marui lied. Actually, he just plain forgot. 

“The one you stole from Wikipedia?!” Sanada roared. 

“Well…the thing is…” 

Kikumaru watched as the Rikkai alumni and Kirihara chatted animatedly about cool things, feeling a little bit left out of their reminiscing session. He looked around for Fuji, only to remember Fuji always came late on Wednesdays, because of his early morning Cactusology class. _Just my luck…_

“It’s just as Renji’s data predicted…90% chance you all would be--” 

“Inui! I’ve missed you!” Kikumaru shouted with glee, cutting off Inui’s rambling with a big warm hug. It was so NICE to see a familiar ex-Seigaku face. 

“Ah! Kikumaru get off of me, please.” Inui said, shoving the red head’s arms off his shoulders. 

“Yukimura, Renji asked me to deliver this to you. He’s unable to make it today. He’s….feeling a little under the weather. ” 

“I’m sorry to hear that. Give him my regards.” Yukimura said sympathetically, taking a small slip of paper from Inui.

“Lemme guess, you gave him one of your gross juices, and now he has a stomachache!” Kikumaru yelled, pointing a finger of accusation towards the data man. Maybe he didn’t actually miss the Dataman after all. 

“There is only a 70% chance that it was my Inui juice. 30% chance it was the pasta he ate for dinner last night!” Inui argued. Why did everyone always have to hate on the Inui juice?

Yukimura looked down at the slip of paper Inui handed to him. There was only one sentence written on it. _There is a 90% chance you will play against Rikkai-dai University in the Kanto tournament this weekend._ This type of thing didn’t really warrant a messenger. Maybe email or text would have been more efficient.

Looking at Yukimura’s expression, Inui spoke up, “I know what you’re thinking.” turning his gaze towards Kirihara he continued, “Actually, I’m really here to talk to Kirihara. I believe Renji’s exact words were ‘Tell Akaya, he’s required to submit paperwork to the office before going on a college visit, otherwise he will be marked absent for all of his classes. If Akaya misses one more Classical Literature class, he will be at risk for failing and put his entire tennis team in jeopardy.” 

Kirihara didn’t even question why Yanagi was still keeping so many tabs on him. At this point, it was just kind of part of who he was.

“What? I have to fill out _paperwork_?!” Kirihara yelled in bewilderment. 

“Of course you have to fill out paperwork! Did you think you could just randomly take a day off school whenever you felt like it?!” Sanada asked in astonishment.

“Um…yeah I did. I remember that’s what Niou-senpai used to do…” Kirihara trailed off, shuffling his feet on the ground.

“Niooouuuu!” Sanada yelled as if Kirihara had brought up a very painful memory.

“Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. I wonder how he’s doing.” Yukimura mused, looking up at the sky thoughtfully.

Niou Masaharu had been missing since his 2nd year of high school and a multitude of rumors had accumulated on the subject of his disappearance. At first, Kirihara hadn’t been sure who to believe. Sanada had said Niou went abroad far far away. Yukimura had simply said Niou dropped out of school. Marui had said Niou joined a gang! [A gang of space-pirates that is] Yanagi had said Niou became a secret spy! It took many months of careful contemplation for Kirihara to figure out the real answer. Niou _dropped out_ of school to _go abroad_ far far away, all the way to the North Pole. There he joined Santa’s _secret gang_ of elves. It makes perfect sense, because Niou hates sunny weather and the heat, so naturally he would want to move somewhere colder.

Kirihara smirked triumphantly, realizing he was the only one who knew the truth about the trickster. However, an annoying dataman’s voice quickly interrupted his happy thoughts.

“This isn’t the time to be smiling, Kirihara. 90% chance that your classical literature class will take place sometime within the next hour. 80% chance the bus will be running late. 85% chance that—“

“Ahhhh! Guys I have to go!” Kirihara yelled, sprinting off in a panic towards the bus stop. 

“You owe me a pack of gum!” Marui yelled after him, but it was too late, Kirihara already ran away.


	10. The Kanto Tournament

The stands in the Kanto tournament were packed…with supporters for Rikkai University. Kirihara was feeling very torn about taking a seat with the Rikkai University students. The other team had his good rival-friends Sanada, Yukimura, and Marui. The Rikkai University team just had some upperclassmen that he didn’t know very well, but because he was the captain of the high school division he was required to watch every university game and try to learn a few things to bring back to the team. 

Looking up into the stands Kirihara thought he saw Yagyuu. Yagyuu was the only person Kirihara knew that actually decided to attend the Rikkai University division. Kirihara wondered what Yagyuu was doing in the stands, maybe he missed playing tennis? After Niou ‘disappeared’ Yagyuu quit tennis and took up golf again. Yagyuu was talking to some very cool looking guy in a suit, with dark shades and a hat. He looked like he could be a spy! Or maybe a rich businessman! Whatever the case, he looked very out of place at this university tennis tournament.

Yagyuu had heard from Yanagi that Yukimura had started up a tennis team with Sanada at their art school. It sounded interesting, so after an intense golfing practice he decided to have a look. [not that he missed tennis or anything] He was tired from all of his golfing, so he decided to sit in the shade, which just so happened to be near the Rikkai University students. 

Yagyuu looked to his right and realized the man sitting next to him looked very familiar, but he couldn’t remember where he knew them from. The man was wearing dark glasses, a suit, a fedora, and had white hair. White hair? Yagyuu seemed to remember, _way_ back in the days he used to play tennis, like 2 years ago, he had a doubles partner who looked just like that.

“Niou?” 

“Yagyuu? It’s been a while.” 

“Did you come to see Yukimura’s new tennis team as well?”

Niou didn’t answer that. “It looks like Yukimura’s school didn’t bring many fans. Maybe you should go help them out.”

And then Niou just got up and left.

Kirihara watched Yagyuu and the cool guy walk away. He desperately wanted to chase after them but couldn’t with all of the Rikkai University upperclassmen watching. 

Reluctantly, Yagyuu got up from the shady spot to join the only two people which had come to support Yukimura’s team: Oishi and Ootori.

Oishi and Ootori were the only people that came to cheer for the Art University tennis team, and they didn’t even attend the school. Yagyuu arrived to find them both holding self-made pom poms and cheering loudly.

“Hooray, Hooray! A-R-T U-N-I-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y” 

*****

Finally, it was time for Yukimura’s team to face off against their first opponent of the tournament, Rikkai University. Some of the Rikkai University members were attempting to hold back laughter upon seeing the Art University’s pretty lilac uniforms with a beige stripe. However, these are Rikkai University students, many of which are former Rikkai high and Junior High students and all too familiar with Yukimura’s special abilities. Meeting eyes with Yukimura’s smiling face, the captain of Rikkai University shakily spoke up:

“We forfeit!”

*****

“That was lame” Shishido commented.

“That team doesn’t deserve to wear mustard yellow jerseys…” Yukimura mumbled to himself.

No one dared to mention the fact that it made perfect sense for the Rikkai University division to wear mustard yellow jerseys, just like the junior high and high school divisions. 

“Yukimura, what’s the next school we’re up against?” Kikumaru jumped around excitedly. 

“Tokyo Doctor University!” 

“But, that’s Oishi’s school!” Kikumaru exclaimed, only to find Oishi was now missing from his cheering station in the stands.

“Yes, I know, that’s why it’s a good thing we have you on the team, Kikumaru, since you know his playing style the best out of all of us.” Yukimura replied.

“We’re best friends though. Besides, I don’t very much feel like playing against Oishi today. Maybe someone else can do it.” Eiji sulked.

“I’ll gladly—“ Mizuki began, only to realize no one was listening to him

Poor Mizuki, no one ever listens to him.

*****

“Will the doubles 2 teams please make their way on to the courts?”

“This is the UH pair’s first match! I’m so excited!” Eiji cheered, somewhat back to his normal happy self.

The Tokyo Doctor University’s doubles 2 team and Marui walked on to the court, but Jirou was nowhere to be seen. 

“Will the rest of the Art University’s doubles 2 team please enter the courts? You have 5 minutes.”

“Tarundoru! Where is Akutagawa?” Sanada asked in frustration. It was a complete loss of face to lose like this!

5 minutes quickly passed as the team searched in a frenzy for Jirou, only to find him asleep under a large shady tree. The team was forced to forfeit their first actual match. Yukimura was not amused. 

“Akutagawa! Wake-up!” Sanada yelled, resisting the urge to slap Jirou awake. He had broken that habit long long ago in high school…But, if Jirou didn’t wake up soon he would have to resort to the dreaded tickling, which was just plain embarrassing. Lucky for Sanada, Jirou woke up without having to be tickled! 

“Huh? Is it my turn to play already?” Jirou asked, dazed. 

“It’s over, you slept through it, come watch Shishido and Kikumaru’s match.” Sanada stated gruffly

“What? But Marui and I are doubles 2? Doesn’t that mean we play second?” Jirou asked, confused. 

Was he serious? How many years had he played tennis? “This is your first time to play doubles in an official tournament, isn’t it?” Sanada sighed. Jirou was, after all, primarily a singles player. 

*****

“It’s you!” Kikumaru pointed in alarm. “Oishi, how could you replace me as your partner with _him_? I feel so betrayed!”

“Eiji I-I” Oishi stuttered. _I had no choice! The coach made me! Ah!_

“Gakuto? I didn’t know you were on the tennis team.” Shishido remarked. 

“Same goes to you Ryou. Moreover, you’re paired up with Mr. Loser Jumper over there. I actually feel sorry for you!” Mukahi laughed evilly. 

Kikumaru started with a serve, a quick serve that flew straight by Mukahi Gakuto’s straight bob of hair and nearly into Oishi’s face. Luckily he caught it and sent it back to the other courts

“Hey, I bet you two don’t even have a very good team name. We’re the Gilver pair! I thought of it all by myself.” Kikumaru huffed.

“That’s great, Eiji. You’re right, we haven’t got a team name yet.” Oishi said, trying to relax his ex-partner. They weren’t on the same team anymore, but he still didn’t like to see Eiji all worked up like this. 

“3 games to 4, Oishi/Mukahi leads.”

_This is bad, we’re falling behind. I have to do something!_ Shishido thought. 

“How about ‘weird hair pair?’ “ Shishido smirked, waiting to see his friend Gakuto’s reaction.

“Ryou! You take that back!” Mukahi yelled, losing concentration and smashing the ball into the net. _Dang it! My hair isn’t weird. It’s cool and handsome you jerk._

“15-0” 

Normally Oishi would have said something to try and comfort his partner, but he was too busy thinking about the meaning behind ‘weird hair pair.’ Did that mean Shishido thought Oishi’s hair was weird too? Did Eiji? Was it time for another haircut? 

Lost in thought, Oishi missed the tennis ball coming right towards him.

“Ah, my bad!”

If Oishi’s partner had been Eiji, he would have said something along the lines of ‘never mind, just try again next time!’ But, Oishi’s partner was Mukahi, who screamed “God, get a grip loser!”

Oishi looked over to the other side of the court for some sympathy from his ex-partner and friend, only to find Eiji and Shishido laughing at something. Were they laughing at him? Was Eiji laughing at the hair he put so much time and effort on?

No, of course Kikumaru wasn’t laughing at Oishi. But, Oishi didn’t know this. And, with Oishi’s overly worrying nature combined with Mukahi’s hotheaded personality it goes without saying the rest of the game went in the Gilver pair’s favor.

“Game and set. Shishido Kikumaru Pair 6 games to 4.”

“You are such a _jerk_ , Ryou!” Mukahi seethed.

“Congratulations, Eiji!” Oishi tried to force a smile, but his feelings were still hurt from when he thought Eiji was laughing at him.

“Oishi! Don’t be sad! I’m sure next time you’ll win!” Kikumaru comforted is former partner. “Maybe it would help if you got a different doubles partner…” He added in a whisper, shooting a suspicious glance in Mukahi’s direction.

*****

“I’m so pumped for singles 3 guys!” Kikumaru announced upon arriving back with the team.

“I wonder who the other team will be sending out.”

“According to my data, it’s not anyone we’ve faced before. Probably an upperclassmen fufufu.” Mizuki chuckled, twirling a strand of hair.

“Actually, Mukahi told me Oshitari’s playing in singles 3. I believe his exact words were ‘Just wait for Yuushi to kick your butts in singles 3!’ “ Shishido said, in a perfectly high-pitched whiny imitation of Mukahi.

“Oooh Oshitari is here? Now it makes sense why Mukahi is going to Tokyo Doctor University. I always thought he wanted to be a professional skateboarder or something.”

“Yup. Gakuto is pretty close with Oshitari’s family who happen to be doctors. Oshitari’s dad said he could pull some strings and land Gakuto a good job if he graduated from medical school.”

“Huh? That’s not nearly as exciting as what I was thinking…” Kikumaru pouted in disappointment. 

“Yeah, I thought it would be more along the lines of you and Ootori’s relationship.” Marui joined in.

“Hey! What’s _that_ supposed to mean?!”

*****

After a short intermission, the singles 3 players walked out onto the courts. For the first half of the game, Fuji and Oshitari were pretty evenly matched. However, the difference in skill between the two quickly became apparent in the second half. Fuji ended up crushing Oshitari pretty badly.

“It seems like you’ve lost your touch, Oshitari,” Fuji scoffed. Oshitari’s skill was nothing like it was back in high school. 

Oshitari huffed. What Fuji said wasn’t wrong. Oshitari was a talented tennis player and a genius, but at the end of the day he was still a full-time medical student. Eat, sleep, study. Eat, sleep, study. Those were the only three things he ever did (and sometimes he even had to forgo one of those!). Unlike other people who were getting degrees in things like landscape photography or oil painting, Oshitari simply didn’t have time to play tennis all the time.

“At least I’m getting a degree in something that matters.” Oshitari said as he walked off the courts. 

*****

For the next match, Tokyo Doctor University finally sent out someone who was not an overpowered first year. This person was already in his final year and had a few years of university level tennis experience under his belt.

This person was, Kanata Irie!

Normally at a time like this, the team captain would wish their players good luck. Yukimura did not do this. 1. Because he knew a talented man like Sanada did not need luck. 2. Because he actually sort of wanted Sanada to lose. 

You see, if Sanada won the next match, Yukimura would have no chance to play. What was the point of creating this team if he didn’t actually get to play tennis!?

So, instead, Yukimura said “Don’t work too hard, Sanada!”

After knowing Yukimura for so many years Sanada, of course, instantly understood what his friend was trying to tell him. 

Yukimura wanted him to lose.

Sanada felt torn. As much as he wanted to please Yukimura, losing on purpose was not the Sanada way. It would disgrace the Sanada family name and he would never be able to forgive himself. Still, Sanada understood where Yukimura was coming from. Their team was so much better than all of the other University level teams, it was possible they would go all the way to nationals without Yukimura getting to play a single game! Sanada hemmed and hawed over this for a while and actually ended up losing a few games to Irie as a result. But in the end he just couldn't do it. 

Sanada Genichirou would not and could not lose on purpose. 

Gritting his teeth, Sanada suddenly unleashed his full potential. Irie found himself helplessly unable to keep up with Sanada’s pace. Perhaps if this match were taking place 4 years prior, back when Irie was in his tennis prime, things would be different. But now, Irie was in his final year at Tokyo Doctor University. Between trying to balance school, his internship, and applying to various residency programs, his tennis skill had fallen by the wayside.

The match was over in a matter of minutes and Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Culinary Arts was declared the Kanto tournament winner!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably goes without saying, but this fic does not reflect my actual views on which degrees are "useless". This is a crack fic. Don't think about it too much.


	11. Mizuki's Great Day!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cannot believe i'm actually updating this crack fic after 4 years, but here we are. I do not plan to update on ff.net where it was originally posted at this time.

**Time: Monday Morning, 8am**

**Location: Mizuki Hajime’s dorm**

_~~_ _So bist du meine Tochter nimmermehr. So bist du meine-meine Tochter nimmermehr. Eeeeeeeeee- eeeeeeeee_ _~~_

“Turn your dang alarm off already.” Mizuki’s roommate, Haru, groaned, stuffing his fingers in his ears. This happened every single morning. Haru could not understand how Mizuki managed to lay there so peacefully while listening to “The Queen Of The Night Aria.” 

“I want to listen to that precious voice for a few more minutes.” Mizuki replied, not making a motion to get up. 

Finally after listening to his so-called beautiful alarm, Mizuki rose from bed and turned the alarm off. “Mmm…I love that part of the song.”

 _Nobody likes that part of the song_ is what Haru usually would have retorted. But, today was somehow different. Instead Haru simply said, “I think that song is growing on me.”

That’s when Mizuki got the feeling today was going to be his day. All those days of people treating him like crap, ignoring him, not wanting to drink his tea, etc. were finally going to be behind him. 

When Mizuki arrived at the street courts, Kikumaru, Jirou and Fuji were already at the gates huddled around one of those infamous calligraphy announcements. 

_Due to some unfortunate events that took place during the Kanto tournament, I have decided it’s best if we switch up the players before the nationals tournament._

_The new line up is as follows:_

_Singles 1: Mizuki Hajime_

_Singles 2: Sanada Genichirou_

_Singles 3: Yukimura Seiichi_

_Doubles 1: Kikumaru Eiji & Shishido Ryou_

_Doubles 2: Marui Bunta & Fuji Syusuke_

_Reserve: Akutagawa Jirou_

Mizuki knew today was his day!

“I can’t believe Yukimura is trying to split up the Gilver paaair. That’s so cruel. We were doing so well!” Kikumaru sobbed.

“Eiji, look, Yukimura didn’t split up the Gilver pair. You and Shishido are still playing together,” Fuji pointed out, with a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. 

“Really?! Oh man I was so worried. It was going to be like that one time when me and Oishi—" Eiji started to ramble on about way back in middle school when the Golden Pair broke up for 2 minutes. Nobody seemed that interested in his monologue.

“Aww man! This is because I fell asleep, isn’t it…” Jirou chuckled, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. 

“Correct, Akutagawa. I moved you down to being our reserve player, because you fell asleep during the last tournament, forcing us to lose an important game,” Yukimura suddenly appeared behind the teammates, with Sanada at his side.

Upon seeing their captain, the teammates bombarded the blue-haired man with a series of questions concerning the new line-up. Sure, moving Jirou to reserve made sense, but a lot of other things didn’t.

“Why is Mizuki playing in singles 1?” 

“Why are you playing all the way down in singles 3 Yukimura?”

“Why is Fuji playing doubles? He hasn’t played doubles since Junior High.”

“Quiet! Let Captain Yukimura speak!” Sanada roared over the crowd. 

“Allow me to explain. Obviously, as I just said, I moved Akutagawa down to our reserve player, because he fell asleep during the last tournament. To replace him in doubles 2, I picked Fuji, because he has some experience, albeit limited, playing doubles and he’s a baseline player.” 

“You still didn’t answer the part about why Mizuki of all people is playing singles 1,” Marui stated. Although personally, he was glad Mizuki wasn’t moved to doubles 2. 

“Probably because Yukimura’s trying to guarantee that he gets a chance to play in the nationals tournament. He was the only one out of all of us that didn’t get to play a match in the Kanto tournament.” 

“I’m not about to go through the whole tournament without playing a single game. I created this team by myself from scratch after all!“ Yukimura stated.

At the words ‘by myself’ Sanada’s face obscured into one of confusion. Hadn’t he been the one to handwrite every advertisement and announcement for the club? Hadn’t he been by Yukimura’s side every step of the way? Was Yukimura _possibly_ taking him for granted?

“By myself, with a smidgen of help from Sanada here,” Yukimura said, patting Sanada heartily on the back.

Sanada breathed a sigh of relief. Of course, silly him, Yukimura wouldn’t take him for granted!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3


End file.
